Inline feeders are typically used in packaging lines to segment and wrap collections of products. For example products that are individual, separable, and uniformly sized can be fed into an inline feeder, which in turn separates the products into uniform groups for packaging. Typical products packaged using an inline feeder can include biscuits, crackers, or other dry foods that are linearly packaged.
Existing inline feeders used in packaging lines for these food products receive a contiguous linear supply of the products. The linear supply of products is separated by a mechanical unit sized to select a constant, predetermined number of products for each package, separate that group of products from the linear supply, and route it toward a component that applies packaging. In certain units, the package unit-sized number of products is moved into a secondary linear supply line leading from the inline feeder to additional packaging modules (e.g. as required for wrapping or otherwise processing the segmented supply of products).
Existing inline feeders typically require the contiguous input feed of products to be paused while the mechanical unit separates each group of products. This pause allows the mechanical separation unit to cleanly separate a group of products and route that group to the secondary linear supply line. However, by requiring the input feed of products to be paused, throughput of products in the packaging lines is limited. Furthermore, existing mechanical units used for segmenting the input feed are highly dependent upon the thickness or size of products received, and are not easily adjustable for different products or package sizes.
For these and other reasons, improvements are desirable.